The plastic stomatal development in grasses and its implications in crop improvement

Area of Science:

• Plant Science
• Genetics
• Agricultural Science

Background:

• Cereal crops (Poaceae) are vital for global food security.
• Improving crop environmental adaptability, especially drought tolerance and water use efficiency (WUE), is a major research focus.
• Stomata are crucial for plant gas exchange and water loss, making them targets for genetic modification.

Purpose of the Study:

• To review recent advances in understanding grass-specific stomatal development mechanisms.
• To highlight the distinct four-celled stomatal complexes in grasses compared to other plants.
• To identify key regulators and multi-omics approaches for optimizing stomatal traits in cereal crops.

Main Methods:

• Review of current literature on grass stomatal development.
• Analysis of species-specific stomatal patterning and environmental plasticity.
• Examination of key regulatory genes (e.g., bHLH transcription factors) and multi-omics strategies (scRNA-seq, ST, GWAS, AI).

Main Results:

• Grasses exhibit unique four-celled stomata with distinct vein-proximal patterning.
• Stomatal density shows plasticity in response to environmental factors like CO2, drought, temperature, and light.
• Key regulators, particularly bHLH transcription factors, are identified for controlling stomatal development stages.

Conclusions:

• Understanding grass-specific stomatal development is essential for enhancing crop resilience.
• Genetic manipulation of stomatal traits offers potential for improving WUE and drought resistance.
• Multi-omics and AI approaches accelerate the discovery of novel regulators for precision breeding of drought-resilient cereal crops.